Sunday July 27, 2014 Teslin, Yukon Territory, Canada

White Pass

We didn't hurry getting up.we only had 160 miles to drive today.  When we got up the entire harbor was shrouded in fog.  I could barely make out the cruise ship that arrived earlier.

It had rained quite a bit during the night and when Gerri ran the slides in it was like waterfalls, especially the big slide.  I only had to unhook the shore power and hook up the Jeep before leaving the RV Park.  We were on the road at 9:15.

Entering British Columbia

Train from Whitehorse waiting for Customs

After leaving Skagway proper the road became steep and winding. Even though the road generally followed the opposite side of the canyon from the train, we never saw the train.  We were able to see the tracks at times.  Most of the way up the 28 mile long hill, one or both sides of the gorge were  in clouds and visibility was limited.  This changed when we reached the top.  We crossed into British Columbia but the Canadian customs station was several miles beyond the border.  It was clear at this elevation and although the altitude was less than 4000' the area looked alpine.  There were many small lakes surrounded either by bare rock or low growing vegetation.

At the Canadian Customs Station the agent came into the coach to ask the required questions.  He did forget to ask if we were carring more than $10,000 US.  He also didn't ask about fruits and vegetables.

The train we rode yesterday came into Canada but turned around before entering customs.  The White Pass and Yukon railroad also makes runs between Skagway and Whitehorse.  When we were at the customs station there was a train waiting to be cleared.

Wild Geranium

We traveled to an intersection with AK-1 and turned east toward Teslin.  This was the road that we had traveled in the opposite direction.

Sourdough Cinnamon Bun

We stopped at Johnson's Crossing, which claimed to have "World Famous" sourdough cinnamon buns.  We bought the end of the pan and two raspberry Scones.  The Skones were fresh and hot we ate one before leaving the parking lot.  Gerri picked out the raspberries.


\

Raspberry Scone

We arrived at Teslin at 2:30. No group activities were planned.  The only internet was at the restaurant and our experiance when we stayed here before was that it was slow.  We didn't even try to get on.  We talked to some other members of the caravan after dinner.  For dinner we had braunschweiger sandwiches.

It rained some before we went to bed and off and on during the night.

Saturday July 26, 2014 Skagway, Alaska

Our little corner of the world

Outside the RV Park

We were up at 6:30 so we would have time to get ready and get down to the train station for our ride up to White Pass.  I had fixed coffee and we had time for a little of that before leaving to catch the train.  We didn’t tke our coffee with us.  It was hurry up and wait, so at the train station I bought a cup and we shared it.  

www.wpyr.com/

The train we rode

The train we rode was the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.  The engine was a GE diesel Electric, circa 1955 and the cars were either rebuilt from or replicas of the original cars that travelled the line.  Skagway is the gateway to the Klondike. 

I think I can, I think I can

The train roughly follows the Trail of ‘98 that gold rushers traveled up to cross White Pass to reach the Yukon river and travel another 600 miles to the gold fields.

The train traveled up a steep grade and across many bridges. There were times when we could look back and see the rest of the cars around the curves.  

Looking back

There were precipitous drop-offs and high cliffs.  Some times we were in the clouds and it rained off and on.

Along the way we could see remnants of the old trail and of a later toll road.  We also passed the Canadian border where the NWMP made sure each person had enough supplies to last a year.  That was about a ton of food.

We all got to see a mama Black Bear and her three cubs.

We didn't go on this one

We traveled 28 miles.  The Rail Road goes on to British Columbia and to Carcross in the Yukon Territory.  We went into BC but turned around before reaching the customs checkpoint.

Black bears

This kept our car warm

North West Mountain Police Station

The Canadian Border

Two Ton reciting Robert Service

The trip back was basically the same scenery in reverse.  All together the trip took about 4 hours.

After the train ride and a brief visit back to the coach we went to lunch at the Klondike Goldfields/Gold Rush Restaurant.  We had an all you could eat buffet featuring ribs, chicken, salmon fish and chips and baked salmon.

www.klondikegoldfields.com/

Following the show we were treated to a recital of some Robert Service poetry by one of the staff, whose Sourdough name was Two Ton.

The little engine that can't,  there was a cache here

The complex also offered a 40 below room, a gold dredge tour and gold panning.  We passed on those.  I took Gerri back to the coach.  I went geocaching and found 4.  I also DNFed 2  One of the caches was a virtual by the cruise ship dock.  The location was beyond the security check point.  The guards knew about the cache and one of them escorted me to the location.

Part of the cast promoting the show

The group activity for the evening was a show about the Trail of '98 featuring the story of a local character, Soapy Smith.  Soapy Smith owned a local saloon and gambling hall that was notorious for cheating and robbing miners.  Soapy was killed in a gunfight with a Vigilance Committee.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith

The cast taking a bow

On the way to the theater we saw the Johnsons parked near a cache that I couldn't find.  They had found it.  After the show I went back and this time found the cache.  I couldn't believe I missed it the first time.  The Johnsons accompanied me to the second cache I hadn't found.  After some searching we came up with it.  This brought my total up to 6 caches found in Skagway.







Back at the coach we had fair internet service so I caught up on logging my caches and finishing blogs. We were in bed at 11.  Tomorrow we go back into Canada and stay at an RV Park we stayed at on the first part of the trip.  It will be a 160 mile drive, estimated to take 6 hours.

Friday July 25, 2014 Skagway, Alaska

We were awakened at 2:56 by a heavy rocking and jarring of the coach.  An earthquake!  It was a long one followed by several smaller ones. I got up and looked outside, there were no lights on in the other RVs.  I turned on the radio and found a station broadcasting from Juneau.  The news said the quake was estimated to be about 6.2 magnitude and was centered 92 miles west of Juneau.  The announcer also said that because of the depth of the water at the epicenter, no wave action was expected.  What worried me was that just after that little bit of news the station went off the air.  I couldn't find another station so I tried the computer and couldn't get online.

Since no one knocked on the door with warnings and there were no warning sirens we went back to bed.  It took awhile to get back to sleep, there were a few aftershocks.  And, it was raining all this time.

Even though we were awakened and could have slept in we were up at 7.  I fixed coffee.  We had no internet or phone service and worried that family would be worried about us needlessly.  We had no way to get news out that we were ok.  It had rained heavily during the night and was still raining when we got up.

I regretted not doing more last night to get ready for travel today.  I lucked out and by the time we wanted to go the rain had cleared up so I got the utilities unhooked without getting wet.  After Skagway we go back into Canada for a few days so I wanted to fill the fuel tanks before leaving Haines.  I went to a nearby NAPA store which had fuel pumps.  Yesterday evening I had driven by to check prices and I was pleasantly supriced to see that prices had dropped 5 cents per gallon.  Of course that still left it at $4.72 a gallon.

Queued up for the ferry

We drove the approximate 5.5 miles to the Ferry terminal and arrived there before 10:30.  One of the rules was that we had to be unhitched from the tow car.  Cars and motor coaches were assigned different lanes for loading on to the ferry.  This ferry wasn’t one of the super ferries like we had taken across the Delaware bay or to Victoria.  It wasn’t even double ended like the one across the Yukon River at Dawson City.  From the looks of it, I didn’t think it would hold all the coaches and tow vehicles in out caravan.  Getting on the ferry involved entering on a ramp through a door near the bow on the starboard side, and then turning left into designated lanes toward the stern.  Some of the cars were parked facing the bow and some facing the stern.  All the large vehicles were facing the stern.  The crew had everything figured out from long practice and was very adept in guiding us in.  There were four rows of coaches and two rows of cars.

No one was allowed to remain on the car deck during the passage to Skagway, which took about 40 minutes.  Of course that didn’t include loading and unloading.   I think that was to get passengers to the gift shop, bar and cafeteria.   Our passage was very pleasant in spite of the cloudy weather.  The sea was smooth and the ferry traveled at about 18 mph.  When we got in sight of Skagway there were two cruise ships in port,  a Carnival and a Norwegian cruise liner.

Unloading the ferry was the reverse of loading.  The cars and smaller vehicles drove off first.  They were the outside lanes.  The motor homes were in the four center lanes.  The motor homes were staggered and as one backed up a crew member gave instructions to the next. I had to back nearly the length of the ferry and make 3 Y maneuvers to line up with the exit ramp which was the same one we had entered by.  Again, the crew was very adept with their directions.

First sight of Skagway

Once off the ferry it was less than a half mile to the RV Park.  The RV Park had had some flooding problems due to the rain.  Water had not been restored to many of the sites.  We were one of several that weren't parked in the RV Park proper.  We were in a paved area outside the fence of the park.  These sights had water and power.  I didn't hook up to the water since I had a full tank of fresh water and we are only here for two nights.

Looking out our front window

After getting set up and eating a late lunch, we walked into town.  We took a few pictures and went into a few shops.  It was cold and threatening rain and we were tired so we returned to the coach.

The two cruise ships left port and headed south at a little after 8.

Gerri did some Sudoku puzzles and read until bed time.  She may have napped a little, I know I did.  It rained quite heavily most of the late afternoon and early evening.  Tomorrow we are scheduled for a train ride at 8 Am so I set an alarm again.

Forget Me Nots?

At bedtime we still had no internet or cell phone service.  Earlier I did send out a message that we were ok via my SPOT satellite communicator.  I have no idea if the message transmitted.  The SPOT unit doesn’t depend on cell service to transmit messages.  It is a satellite system.  Since we haven’t been able to receive DirecTV or Sirius Radio, I doubt it reached a satellite.  We will see when we get cell and internet service again.  I need to refamiliarize myself with the unit and get back online and see just who the messages got to.

Thursday July 24, 2014 Haines, Alaska

Bella

We had time to sleep in today.  The forecast was for rain, but it didn't rain until evening.  After we got up we had plenty of time for our coffee.  At 10:30 we all met at the American Bald Eagle  ­­­­­­­­­­Foundation. https://www.facebook.com/AmericanBaldEagleFoundation  There were taxidermy displays of almost every kind of animal that I have ever seen.  We saw a demonstration by a Bald Eagle named Bella. Bella had been rescued after colliding with a power line.  A college student gave us a great deal of information on bald eagles.  The eagle was a little skittish of her because they hadn’t worked together very long.  Bella wouldn’t perch on the curators arm but would get close enough to pick up treats laid out for her.  We also were given a presentation on Red Tail Hawks and there were a couple of owls available to observe.

We drove to the Haines Packing Company To watch fish being processes.  The line crew was cleaning up in preparation to go to lunch.  We looked around the gift shop and the office where fish and other seafood products were sold.  We bought two large Salmon filets.  They were frozen so we took them back to the coach and put them in our freezer.  http://www.hainespacking.com/

Above Chilkoot Lake

After that we drove out of town past the Ferry terminal for the Alaskan Marine Highway.   I found one geocache near the ferry terminal. We drove on along the Chilkoot River to Chilkoot Lake.     At several points along the river people were fishing, both bait casting and fly fishing out in the river.  There were segments of the road with bear warnings and signs were posted no stopping or standing.  We stopped at one point and ask if they were catching anything.  The answer was no, not today.

Fishers on the Chilkoot River

Gerri at Big Al's

We ate a late lunch.  We stopped at Big Al’s Salmon Shack and bought fish and chips.  We took the meal back to the coach because Big Al’s only had outside seating at two picnic tables.  Big Al’s was only a trailer parked by the highway which serves seafood items to go.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Als-Salmon-Shack/117911284961222

At five the group gathered for a snack social.  It was threatening rain at this point but it held off during the social and the briefing for Friday’s travel.  Tomorrow we catch the ferry to Skagway which is 18 miles north of Haines by sea.  It is over 360 miles by road.  The briefing of the ferry boarding rules and requirements was very complicated.

Since it was cold and threatening rain I opted not to put anything away outside.  We didn’t have to be at the ferry until 11 AM and besides that we both wanted to shower before traveling in the AM because we expected to only have electricity at the RV Park in Skagway.

We caught up on computer stuff and went to bed by 11.  

Wednesday July 23, 2014 Haines, Alaska

Standing at the dock of the sea

We were up with the alarm.  I made the coffee and we drank it while getting ready to go to Juneau.  As usual we caught up on our computer activities, such as e-mail, Facebook and keeping track of our spending.

The boat goes to Juneau at 8:30 so we allowed plenty of time to get ready and get to the dock. We rode the short distance to the dock with the Johnsons and Christian.  The day was overcast but occasionally the sun peeked through the clouds.  The back drop of mountains around the town and bay were spectacular.

Mountains to the east of Haines

We saw numerous Bald Eagles while waiting for the boat.  We saw both mature and juvenile eagles.  The feathers on the head of a Bald Eagle don't turn white until they are about five years old. Both male and female adults have white heads. The female is larger than the male. They can live to be 50 and mate for life..

A Steller Sea Lion rookery

I thought we were taking a short boat ride from Haines to Juneau.  I must not have listened at a briefing and I never checked the distance.  It was 92 miles.  The boat took us to Yankee Cove and a bus took us the last 20 miles into Juneau.

A Bald Eagle in flight

The boat Captain took a route that took us by a sea lion rookery.  He said that the sea lions we saw were the pups that hadn't left the rookery yet.    If you look closely you will see an eagle on the rock just above the sea lions.  We also saw more eagles in flight.  Along this shore the nests average one per mile.  The deckhand, Anna, served drinks and blueberry muffins on the trip to Juneau and a corn and clam chowder on the return trip.  Check out the Web Site and Facebook page.  On the Facebook page our captain is on the left and third from left is our deckhand, Anna. http://alaskafjordlines.com/  https://www.facebook.com/alaskafjordlines?ref=br_tf

One of many glaciers that we saw on the trip to and from Juneau

We also saw many glaciers along the way.  These were alpine glaciers that originated from the Juneau Ice Field.  They don't reach the sea. Occasionally we could see the blue tint to the ice when the sun was just right.

An alpine glacier

Juneau Capitol building (presently being remodeled) 

The bus driver also narrated the drive into town.  Once downtown we were dropped off to be on our own for a couple of hours.  The drop off point and later pick up point was at the cruise ship dock. Four ships were in port and another was approaching.

Stairs to a cache

We walked to the Alaska Capitol Building with Bob and Rebecca.  It was about 4 blocks uphill.   We went into the lobby area and listened to some of the facts from the tour guide. Bob and Rebecca continued on the tour and we went back to the shopping area.  We found a few things of interest.  Most of the streets in this area were narrow and alternate one way.  With all the cruise ships in port it was very busy.  There were steep stairways up the hill to another street.  We took one of the staircases up and found two caches.  The picture only shows about half the steps.  Down was a little easier. The stairs have street names.  I suppose because there are homes off them and they have to have an address.

Lunch at Tracy's King Crab Shack

We had lunch at one of the restaurants the bus driver recommended.  We choose Tracy's King Crab Shack because the main thing we wanted was included in the name.  We split a combo plate and an order of fried shrimp.  The food including the crab cakes was excellent.

Mendenhall Glacier

Back on the bus at 3 PM, it was off to Mendenhall Glacier.  This glacier and the surrounding area is a National park  We were here 12 years ago on a tour from the cruise ship.  The area is quite different.  The glacier has retreated a couple of miles.  All the glaciers in Alaska are retreating, part of a cycle that began in the 1700's.

The Evvida in dock

We were picked up by the boat at Auke Bay Harbour.  There was a motor yacht, the Evviva, at a dock.  This yacht is 162' loog and over 30' wide. According to Google it is one of two this size built by the same company.  The other doesn't feature a heliport.  This is the 78th largest yacht in America and is registered in the Cayman Islands.

Humpback Whales bubble net feeding

The captain assured us of whale sightings on the return trip.  Boy, did we see whales.  We saw them engage in a feeding behavior called bubble netting.  We had seen this on another whale watching trip, but not so many times.

Whale tail and water spouts

Bubble netting is a cooperative action, in this case involving 12 humpback whales.  The dive and swim in an ever decreasing circle while blowing bubbles.  This herds schools of herring to the surface.  At a signal from the leader all the whales surface at the same time with their mouths open, catching their meal.  We saw them do this several times at a distance and as we drifted they did it one time about 20 yards from our boat.  When the whales prepared for their next dive some were within 10' of our boat.  There were dozens of other boats also watching the whales.  Gerri got some good whale tail shots.

Eldred Rock Lighthouse

We passed two lighthouses on the return trip.  One the Eldred Rock Lighthouse, although unmanned is maintained by the Coast Guard.  It is reportedly for sale. and has a mystery story attached to it.  http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=828

We got back to Haines at nearly 8 PM.  Dave stopped by a cache on the way back to the RV Park.  They directed me to the cache and I signed the log.

This was a very good day.  Lots of spectacular scenery, whales, eagles, great food, caches and good company.

Bed time was soon on us and I noticed that at 11 PM it was actually dark.  It may have been partly because of the clouds but we are losing about 7 minutes of daylight per day.  That will increase as we go south.

Tuesday July 22, 2014 Haines, Alaska

Kluane Lake

I was up and started hr coffee coffee at 6:30.  Gerri got up at 8.  After catching up on e-mail and Facebook we were ready and rolled out of the park at 9:30.  Today our drive was from Kluane Lake, YT to Haines, AK.  A distance of 213 miles which included traveling through a small portion of British Columbia.

 This was by far the most scenic days drive yet.  We had views of mountains, forests, meadow, lakes, rivers, creeks and lots of wildflowers.  We don't know what they all are but I have included pictures.

Many glaciers along the hwy

The road was good, only a couple of short stretches with gravel and shoulder work.

Almost out of Canada

When we turned west at Haines Junction the road was really good most of the way into Alaska.  One of the things that we learned last night was that most of the roads in the Yukon Territory are financed by the USA because that is where the roads go.










Once we got past customs into Alaska it was only a short distance to Haines.  We will be in Haines for three nights.

One of many mountain streams.

 We got parked by 1:30.  I went across the street with the Jeep and washed it at a coin operated car wash.  The coach will have to wait until we have more time.

The group had impromptu hors d'oeuvres before supper.  Supper was on our own and Gerri fixed us a large salad.

Tomorrow we take a boat into Juneau and then go to Mendenhall Glacier while there. Our alarm clock is set for an early time to get up.

A fish reel on the Chilkoot River